Articles from Herald Newspaper by Steven Masone

Election "08"...Who won?
By Steven E. Masone

With Hillary Clinton at the helm of the most important foreign relations post in the world and all the rest of the cast selected by president-elect Barack Obama, mostly Clintonistas',,,who really won? and who will the world leaders believe is in charge?
After the Clinton's forged alliances both here and abroad for their agenda that Hillary was to raise from the eight year ash heap that Bill trashed with his promiscuous and lying affair in the White House, it still looks like they won! Obama must forge his own alliances with world leaders based on "change" and avoid politics as usual to fulfill his campaign promises or the independents and new voters that were the swing votes he needed and will need for re-election will abandon him in 2012. If not, 2016 will go to republicans.

Unless Hillary can wait until 2016, Obama may find himself with some very "strange bedfellows". The Clintons will amass greater political clout and financial support to fulfill their agenda that slipped away but has returned with Obama handing it to them on a silver platter.
Barack Obama certainly is going a little over board on "Sun Tsu's Art of War principle, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer". While you keep your enemies close, you are not supposed to help them build stronger and richer to use against you another day!

Perhaps Obama is more astute than we know and has an ace in the hole for later use. The hard thing to understand his strategy in giving Hillary Clinton such a vital post may have more to do with his already being briefed about regions that are hot beds of war and collapsing governments and she is set up to fail. But to have her fail and be dismissed will not be good for him either. He will have to keep her in that post till after 2012 if he is re-elected, and then give her the boot.
Either way Barack Obama has more than a rookie politician and inexperienced executive should be able to handle if he cannot get the rest of his team one thousand  behind him! He may succeed if he can do that, and never be deceived that the Clintons are not one thousand percent for for themselves.




California going broke!
by Steven E. Masone

According to an Associated Press (AP) report, California will run out of money in two months if a budget is not passed with tax increases to pay for it. California voters passed "Proposition 13" thirty years ago which makes it illegal to raise taxes without a two thirds majority of the legislature!
Democrats have now subverted once again the will of the people by calling new increases, "fees"...not taxes! They have spent and spent, and now are attempting to cover their mess with deceitful technicalities and illegally raise taxes.
California will not be broke in two months, California is broke right now! The coffers of legislative ethics and accountability to those who elected them are empty! These ' wanna be' Robin Hoods have been stealing from the rich (corporations,companies) so long, the rich have all moved to friendlier places and or out-sourced our jobs to afford the increasing costs of doing business.
Now California has the third highest unemployment rate in the country at 8.4% and illegal immigration which the Democrats continue to allow for voter support, at the cost of tens of billions of dollars a year (F.A.I.R. Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform studies) and wasted billions on a broken public education and welfare state.
Has our broken education system also caused California citizens to be bankrupted of common sense? When we passed Prop 13, it was so that our budget would live within it's means without our taxes being raised up and up to satisfy the politicians agenda's for bigger government through buying favors and power with our money! Shame on us for putting up with the democrats and turncoat republicans that have sold us out.
Governor Arnold Shwartzneggar, while not the " Regan conservative" we need, at least understands that he must drastically cut spending and because we are past the point of no return raise taxes. Taxes only have to be raised because the democrats will not allow the real cuts in education,welfare, state bureaucracy etc... that would right our financial state and implement the ways and means to draw big business and jobs back to California.
Cailifornia does not have a revenue problem, we have a legislature problem! Forget about party loyalty, put fiscally responsible people in Sacramento no matter what you feel when you see the (R) by their name, it's better than seeing the ("0") by your bank account!